I Read the AI Article Everyone's Sharing. Here's What I Think It Means for DMOs.
Updated: Feb 16
Matt Shumer's "Something Big Is Happening" article has been in my inbox, my LinkedIn feed, and about four different group chats this week. I even reposted it and said it might be the most important article you read this week, if not this year. If you work in destination marketing and haven't seen it yet, you're probably the last one.
If you missed it, Shumer is the CEO of an AI startup, and he basically wrote a letter to his friends and family about what he's been seeing with AI lately. It went viral. Millions of views in a couple of days.
I've read it a few times now. And honestly, while I think some of it is a little dramatic (he comes from the tech world, so there's a certain intensity there), the core point is one I've been wrestling with myself. There's this growing gap between what AI can actually do right now and what most people think it can do. And I keep noticing it's splitting people into two very different camps.
I think that split is especially interesting for DMOs. So I wanted to share what I've been thinking about.
Two camps
I talk to destination marketers pretty much every week. And what I've noticed is you can almost sort people into two groups right now.
Group one tried ChatGPT back in 2023, got some generic blog posts out of it, thought "that's neat but not great," and moved on.
Group two has been quietly using these tools every day. They're creating more content, faster, and with fewer people. Some of them tell me things that honestly still surprise me, even though I work in this space. A team of three producing what used to take eight or ten people. That's not a hypothetical. I've watched it happen.
The difference between those two groups isn't talent or budget. It's mostly just that one group kept experimenting and the other stopped.
The generalist thing
Shumer makes a point about AI improving at everything simultaneously. Not just writing or coding, but all of it at once. What I've been noticing in the DMO world is that the marketers who know a little bit about a lot of things and can use AI to fill the gaps are becoming way more valuable than specialists who only do one thing.
I know that might be uncomfortable to hear. But think about it from a DMO director's perspective. If you have someone on your team who can write decent copy, create basic graphics, put together a social calendar, and produce short videos, and AI helps them do all of that faster and better, that person is incredibly valuable right now. Probably more than someone who's amazing at one thing but can't flex into anything else.
I'm not saying specialists disappear. I am saying what one person can realistically produce on their own has changed dramatically. And for DMOs that have always had to do more with less, that's probably the most meaningful part of this whole conversation.
Where I think Shumer misses something about our world
There's a section in his article about AI-generated writing being indistinguishable from human work. And for a lot of industries, I think that's a fair point. But there's something specific to destination marketing that I think matters here.
The best DMO marketing I've ever seen wasn't about volume. Pure Michigan worked because of how it made you feel. "What Happens in Vegas" worked because it gave people permission to be a different version of themselves. Neither of those campaigns was about producing more content. They were about telling one story really, really well.
AI can help you produce content faster. No question. But figuring out what your destination's story actually is? That's still deeply human work. The interviews with local business owners, the understanding of what makes your town different from the one 30 miles down the road, the instinct for what will make someone stop scrolling and actually feel something. AI can't do that yet.
Where AI gets interesting for DMO content is in the production layer. You do a 45-minute interview with a local restaurant owner, and instead of spending three days turning that into a blog post and some social clips and an email section, it takes an afternoon. The creative thinking stays with you. The tedious execution part speeds up dramatically.
I think that's the play for DMOs. Not replacing the human stuff. Freeing up more time for it.
The practical reality
I'm not one for sky-is-falling stuff. But I do think there's a real window right now.
Here's what I mean. Most DMOs are already working with fewer people than they need. That's not news. What's new is that AI directly addresses that problem in ways nothing else has. The capacity gap that every DMO director talks about can actually shrink now. Not in some theoretical future. Right now. The barrier to getting started as an individual is incredibly low, and even at the organizational level, the investment is a fraction of what hiring another person would cost.
The other shift I think is worth paying attention to is how travelers find information. More people are asking AI assistants where to eat, what to do, where to stay. If your destination's content isn't part of those answers, you're missing a growing channel. Not in a scary way. Just in a "this is a new thing that exists and most DMOs aren't thinking about it yet" kind of way. Which means there's actually an opportunity for the ones that start early.
What I'd suggest
After working alongside DMO teams for 15+ years, here's probably where I'd start:
Pick one workflow and get good at it. Don't try to transform everything overnight. Pick the most repetitive, time-consuming task your team does. Maybe it's drafting social posts. Maybe it's creating itinerary pages. Whatever it is, spend a few weeks getting really comfortable using AI for that one thing. Then move to the next.
Give your team actual time to learn. Whether your team is using individual tools like ChatGPT or a platform built for your whole organization, the cost isn't what holds most DMOs back. It's time. Most people haven't had the space to actually learn how to use any of this well. If you expect your team to figure this out during lunch breaks, nothing's going to change.
Keep doing the human stuff. As more AI-generated content hits the internet, the things that are hardest to replicate become more valuable, not less. Your community relationships, your local knowledge, the stories only your team can tell because they actually live in and know your destination. AI handles execution. Your people handle the stuff that makes your place feel like a place.
Start thinking about AI search. This one's more forward-looking, but it matters. When someone asks their AI assistant "where should I go for a long weekend in Oregon?" does your destination show up? Most DMOs are still optimizing for Google, which is fine, but it's not the whole picture anymore.
Where I sit on all this
I've been building Swix AI specifically for DMOs because I watched the capacity problem firsthand for years. So yeah, I have skin in the game here.
But my honest advice is the same regardless of what tools you use: start experimenting. Not because everything is about to fall apart, but because the difference between "we're trying stuff" and "we're not sure if it's worth it" gets bigger every month. You don't have to move fast. What matters is actually trying.
Shumer's article made a lot of people nervous, and I get why. But when I think about what it means for destination marketing specifically, I don't feel fear. I feel like there's a real chance for the people who are curious and willing to learn to get meaningfully ahead. That window doesn't stay open forever, but it's wide open right now.
I'd rather be the person who started too early than the one who started too late.
